The Soldier and the City: How Fort Myers Got Its Name

The name "Fort Myers" traces its roots back to a time of conflict and a story of unrequited love. In 1850, during the Seminole Wars, a military base was established on the banks of the Caloosahatchee River. The fort was built to serve as an operations hub for the U.S. Army, but its name was actually a wedding gift of sorts.

Myers himself, a career military officer and future Quartermaster General of the Confederate States Army, allegedly never even set foot in the city that now bears his name.

The commander of the Florida district at the time was General David Twiggs. He chose to name the outpost after his son-in-law, Colonel Abraham C. Myers. Interestingly, Twiggs was reportedly so fond of Myers—and so eager to please his daughter—that he bestowed the name upon the fort as a gesture of familial favor.

The military fort was eventually abandoned in 1858 and later burned, but the name endured. When settlers returned to the riverbanks after the Civil War to build a permanent town, they kept the moniker.

Today, when you stay at Riverfront Retreats at Bay Pointe, you are residing on the very lands that once defined the southern frontier of the United States.